Sharing your faith with others isn’t always the most popular topic. You may feel that if you share your faith that people will think you’re stupid. You might be afraid of being singled out by others. So you do what many Christians do, you stay quiet about your faith. You don’t speak up when someone challenges what you believe. You know that praying with a friend, who is going through a difficult time, would really help, but you’re afraid of what your friend might think. The list of excuses we make for not sharing our faith can be pretty long. However, let’s take a look at what football can teach us about sharing our faith with others.
I know a guy who is a huge football fan. He watches football all the time on TV. When there’s no football on TV, he plays it on his Xbox. Football is something he’s really excited about. This past season, his favorite team did really well. They won a ton of games, and of course he’s really excited about it. Every conversation this guy brings up football and his favorite team. He talks and talks and talks about it. Why? Because he’s so excited about how well they’re doing.
My friend is not that weird. We are all like that. When we are really excited about something, we like to talk about it. If we have discovered something new, we tell others. If we find a good deal on something when we’re shopping, we tell others. So why is it that when it comes to something as exciting as finding Jesus do we shut up? Shouldn’t something that has changed our lives, something that affects how we live our lives everyday be something we share with others?
Why is it that we talk about our favorite ball team winning with everyone we know, but when it comes to sharing our faith, many times we tell no one? We have something way more exciting than a winning team, we have a winning God. We have a God who loved us, and gave his son so that we could experience life change and a relationship with Him. Why aren’t we filling our Twitter feed with that news?
It’s easy to be afraid to share our faith with others. It’s easier to not say anything so that we don’t look weird to others. However, we are called to be salt and light to our world.
Matthew 5:13-15 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.
This verse shows us that we are to be showing God to others. We are not to keep God a secret from the people in our lives. Just like when our favorite ball team is winning and we tell everyone we know, we should be telling everyone we know about God. We should be letting others know that God has changed our lives, and to let them know that He can change theirs too. If God has done something in your life, you should believe that He will do the same for others. So choose to put your fears aside and to step up and tell others about God.
2 Timothy 4:2 – Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season.
